MSNZ & TMC - 'Wheels start to come off'

[socram]

Originally Posted by promax

Someone promoted the series last season? The promotion (or lack of it) looked no different to any other season?

Several pages before most rounds in the Herald with details of all classes and entrants, plus emails galore, was a massive step up from previous years, when you'd hardly know there was a meeting on and what there was seemed to be less than inspiring.

Add to that the sterling work done by the series organisers' group and most would say that last season was the best for many a year and augured well for the future.

Promoting or advertising events may not always be cost effective in terms of getting bodies through the gate, but those mentioned earlier were heading in the right direction, certainly in terms of grid sizes.

[on_to_it]

Originally Posted by Icarus_nz

Noice.
It can only end well.
I know of another day that would be perfect to announce this but that rolled past over a month ago

Is it possible Speedworks might come up short?

[Mark Petch]

Originally Posted by socram

Several pages before most rounds in the Herald with details of all classes and entrants, plus emails galore, was a massive step up from previous years, when you'd hardly know there was a meeting on and what there was seemed to be less than inspiring.

Add to that the sterling work done by the series organisers' group and most would say that last season was the best for many a year and augured well for the future.

Promoting or advertising events may not always be cost effective in terms of getting bodies through the gate, but those mentioned earlier were heading in the right direction, certainly in terms of grid sizes.

Ray, with no disrespect to Chris Watson, who's friendship I value, however, it was Richard Gee that was responsible for the increase in media coverage last year and I think Chris would also agree with that statement.

Richard Gee is now an integral part of Speedworks and thats a good thing in my opinion.

What Chris lacked was the ability to bring on commercial partners because he is not a salesman, and Geoff Short is love or hate him. Chris is a backroom organiser and does a dam good job of that, however he is no match for Garry Lathrope and his business partner Rachael, they are the best in the business no question about that, least not in my experience.

[socram]

I didn't single out Chris Watson specifically Mark, though he was part of the HRC team, that obviously included Richard Gee. I have huge respect for Chris too, and I think he is very much one of the unsung heroes of NZ Motorsport. But, without something worth promoting, you can be the best sales person in the world, but it isn't going to put bums on seats, or grids or attract the sponsors.

What I was basically trying to say is that whoever was responsible for the 2015/16 season, moved things a massive step forwards and without that step forwards, there wouldn't be much to promote for 2016/17. You can't hang the wallpaper before the floor has been laid.

[promax]

Originally Posted by socram

Several pages before most rounds in the Herald with details of all classes and entrants, plus emails galore, was a massive step up from previous years, when you'd hardly know there was a meeting on and what there was seemed to be less than inspiring.

Add to that the sterling work done by the series organisers' group and most would say that last season was the best for many a year and augured well for the future.

Promoting or advertising events may not always be cost effective in terms of getting bodies through the gate, but those mentioned earlier were heading in the right direction, certainly in terms of grid sizes.

A Herald article for some rounds and emails? No wonder there is very little interest.

[socram]

...and no doubt there was plenty more on social media such as Facebook. There may have been motorway billboards too, so I doubt that many enthusiasts were unaware of what was going on.

Spending money on promotion should be cost effective - and it often isn't! The event's best publicity is people returning to work on Monday stating what a fantastic weekend it was, looking forward to the next one. Word of mouth is still very effective. When you were young, it was probably a gang of you heading to the racetrack to see great racing. Apart from drifting, the youngsters haven't found many modern events very compelling.

Spending even $20,000 on promotion and getting a total of just 2,000 paying people through the gate isn't a success. Spending $40,000 and still only getting $3,000 is even worse.

[Mark Petch]

Originally Posted by socram

...and no doubt there was plenty more on social media such as Facebook. There may have been motorway billboards too, so I doubt that many enthusiasts were unaware of what was going on.

Spending money on promotion should be cost effective - and it often isn't! The event's best publicity is people returning to work on Monday stating what a fantastic weekend it was, looking forward to the next one. Word of mouth is still very effective. When you were young, it was probably a gang of you heading to the racetrack to see great racing. Apart from drifting, the youngsters haven't found many modern events very compelling.

Spending even $20,000 on promotion and getting a total of just 2,000 paying people through the gate isn't a success. Spending $40,000 and still only getting $3,000 is even worse.

100% Correct Ray, and I speak from first hand experience, social media and a promo deal with your television provider, in the case of the Premier Summer Series, is now the only cost effective way of attracting the hard core spectators to a race meeting with the right mix of Premier class fields and support categories.

The days off attracting non-motorsport enthusiast's along for something to do on a Sunday is long gone. Fortunately, Motorsport competitors are on the increase and we see that at Racer Products on a daily basis and their friends and families, help swell the numbers. However, the inevitable economic downturn is always felt first at sports and recreation pursuits that involve capital expenditure and travel, so fingers crossed that we don't have another meltdown anytime soon.

SOG, Series Organiser's Group, is the main reason why last season was a big step in the right direction, and Speedworks have to work with SOG and MSNZ, which is a major, and very important change in the way it used to be under TMC/MSNZ.

[drftin]

HRC did a good job last year but this year would have been pretty different with a huge input from TQ, i doubt MSNZ were keen on that.
The team they have put together sounds very good to me, hopefully they have enough time to put on some good events.

[Mark Petch]

Originally Posted by drftin

HRC did a good job last year but this year would have been pretty different with a huge input from TQ, i doubt MSNZ were keen on that.
The team they have put together sounds very good to me, hopefully they have enough time to put on some good events.

Nothing to do with MSNZ other than to being a party to the approval process.

Geoff Short put the Speedworks team together and full credit to him.
.

[drftin]

perhaps i should have push enter an extra time, 2 very seperate sentences in my post. "They" really refers to Geoff and co

[promax]

Originally Posted by socram

Apart from drifting, the youngsters haven't found many modern events very compelling.

I don't know about that. Youngsters seem to turn out for a number of non D1NZ events. The problem is current classes don't really interest anyone.. other than those involved. It will be the same with the new NZ Racing Cars. They may get 20 plus cars out there... but how really cares? The current product is bland. It's hard to sell something.. no one wants to buy.

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by promax

I don't know about that. Youngsters seem to turn out for a number of non D1NZ events. The problem is current classes don't really interest anyone.. other than those involved. It will be the same with the new NZ Racing Cars. They may get 20 plus cars out there... but how really cares? The current product is bland. It's hard to sell something.. no one wants to buy.

They tried it years ago with those Star Cars, I don't think anyone was very interested then either. Not quite the same but very similar. It's about as interesting as watching David Lange vs Lana Koc-Croft in Suzuki Swifts - interesting to those racing only. Although it would be quite interesting to see those two race now, given Mr Lange's current condition...

[CDM]

Originally Posted by Goat Boy

They tried it years ago with those Star Cars, I don't think anyone was very interested then either. Not quite the same but very similar. It's about as interesting as watching David Lange vs Lana Koc-Croft in Suzuki Swifts - interesting to those racing only. Although it would be quite interesting to see those two race now, given Mr Lange's current condition...

Those star cars were a similar concept but much much much uglier!!

Dunno if you have ever watched the Aussie Race Cars live, but their racing is great!

Obv's TQ has the funds to get it rolling and I believe the fact that you can ship one to/from Aussie & do some iconic events like Bathurst etc will certainly be advantageous to the Series.

[Goat Boy]

Hmmm, I am yet to be convinced but we will see...

[promax]

Again.. the class might be popular to those involved. To the general public the cars will look like little toy cars. Agree the racing in Aussie at big Supercar meetings look great. Still don't think the class attracts people through the gate though.

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by promax

Again.. the class might be popular to those involved. To the general public the cars will look like little toy cars. Agree the racing in Aussie at big Supercar meetings look great. Still don't think the class attracts people through the gate though.

Agreed

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by CDM

Dunno if you have ever watched the Aussie Race Cars live, but their racing is great!

Up here, they're called Legends. Don't think they're identical to the Aussies, but very similar. They are definitely great to watch, though. Fantastic racing and some pretty dramatic accidents too!

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Woolley

Up here, they're called Legends. Don't think they're identical to the Aussies, but very similar. They are definitely great to watch, though. Fantastic racing and some pretty dramatic accidents too!

Of course the Legends are very popular in the USA as well. Kind of a modern day version of what 1970's and 1980's Formula Ford used to be. They are very popular due to their low cost and simplicity. Aussie Racing Cars as I recall was started around 20 years ago by someone named Phil Ward and they were built to run only on road courses and have some differences with the Legends, but at the end of the day it's the same concept.

Ultimately having solid categories that are affordable and straightforward to run for an average joe builds a solid foundation for everything else. You can't wrong there.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by CDM

Those star cars were a similar concept but much much much uglier!!

Dunno if you have ever watched the Aussie Race Cars live, but their racing is great!

Obv's TQ has the funds to get it rolling and I believe the fact that you can ship one to/from Aussie & do some iconic events like Bathurst etc will certainly be advantageous to the Series.

The fact they can be run or sold in Australia certainly helps.

I've never had feelings one way or another for the series, but certainly the racing is good and I've never heard any major complaints about it. However it's probably been a few years since I have seen footage of it though so I'm not up to date with the current status of it.

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Aussie Racing Cars as I recall was started around 20 years ago by someone named Phil Ward

I think they've got over that now, though.

[Racetroll]

MSNZ AGM - hopefully you guys have been on Facebook etc over the weekend and have seen the updates from AGM and the Awards Night. We also had two press releases picked up Sunday by the MSM. If you haven't already head to https://www.facebook.com/MotorSportNewZealand/ for photos and all the information.